Do We Still Believe in Wrath? 1

Romans 1:18 and the Question of God’s Wrath

I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me again to Romans chapter 1. And we're going to be looking at Romans 1 and verse 18. Recently, an event occurred within Christianity which brought with it a new conversation about an old controversy.

The PCUSA is the Presbyterian Church of the USA and it is in distinction from the PCA. The PCA being the more conservative wing of the Presbyterian Church. The PCUSA being the more liberal wing of the Presbyterian Church.

The PCUSA struck a chord with many when they decided in their recent decisions not to allow one specific song into their new hymnal. They have a new hymnal which is coming. And in the new hymnal, the song was entitled, In Christ Alone.

That hymn, which was recently written, I guess within the last couple of years, has reached immense popularity since its release, but yet it was excluded from the hymnal. It was excluded because of one line.

The line is this, Till on that cross, as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied. Till on that cross, as Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied. And the committee which voted on what songs were entered into the new hymnal said that they did not want that song in the hymnal because of that particular line.

In fact, they tried to rewrite the line. They said, how about this? How about, Till on that cross, as Jesus died, the love of God was magnified. Thus removing any reference to wrath or the satisfaction thereof.

Well, the writers of the song said they would not allow the change, and so the committee chose to leave that very popular song out of the hymnal. The committee stated ultimately that it wasn't so much the wrath of God that they had a problem with, but it was the word satisfied.

They argued that the belief that Christ satisfied the wrath of God on the cross was expressing a doctrine of the atonement with which they disagree. They disagree with what's called penal substitutionary atonement.

The committee ultimately decided it would be a disservice to this educational mission to perpetuate the view that the cross is primarily about the need to assuage God's anger. That was a quote from the committee.

It would be a disservice for us to teach that the cross is about assuaging the anger of God. So, here we have an entire denominational body within the church which has decided that God's wrath being satisfied in the work of Jesus Christ is not only unworthy of their hymnal, but that it is in fact a false teaching which does not need to be perpetuated.

Beloved, it is sad. It is truly sad. How far some have fallen away from the gospel of Christ. It is sad how far some movements have fallen away from the gospel of Christ. And this has caused me to want to spend some time on a very important question, a question which a lot of people may feel uncomfortable with, a question which may cause some discomfort in listening to, but yet it is a question that needs to be asked.

Do we still believe in the wrath of God? Do we still believe in God's wrath? Well, beginning today and in the weeks to come, I want us to examine that important question and I want us to see what the Bible says.

And ultimately, if we are going to believe the Bible, we must bow the knee to what it says. With that in mind, as we do with regularity, we stand when the Word of God is read. Let us stand for the reading of Romans 1 and verse 18.

Romans 1 .18 says,. For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. Our Father and our God, we thank You for Your Word.

We thank You for the opportunity to study it together. I pray that as we look at this subject that is so unpopular today, that some do not even mention within the church that we would be willing to see Your Word, what it teaches on this subject, and that we would bow our knee to it.

I do pray, Lord, that You would keep me from error, as I am a fallible man and capable of preaching error. I pray that You would keep me from that and hold me to the text of Scripture. And I pray, O Lord, that You would also put ahead Your protection around Your people and yet at the same time open their hearts to the truth.

For we know, O Lord, You are the One who opens the heart, and only You can bring understanding. So we pray that Your Holy Spirit would be among us today and that He would be the ultimate Teacher and that Your Word be our guide.

In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Those of you who are very familiar with me know that I like to tell stories, and I like to tell stories more than once. I just have a habit of sharing things, and those who I've been friends with for many, many years have probably heard all of my stories three or four times at least.

But there's one particular event that happened in my life, and I know some of you have heard this before, but I want to share it again, because there's this event that happened in the life of my ministry here at the church back when I was doing youth work that really opened my eyes to how people see the Bible, how people see God, how people understand, and how much influence the world has had in changing our understanding of who God is and how God is rather than the Word of God.

God’s Hatred of Sin and the Popular Denial of Wrath

I was in a group of young people, and I was teaching on Proverbs 6. And in Proverbs 6 it talks about the six things that God hates, yea, seven are an abomination unto Him. And I said, you know, here are things that God literally hates.

And one of the young men, he stopped me in mid-conversation, and he said, wait a minute. I didn't think God hated anything. I didn't think God hated anything. God is all love. God is all loving. I didn't know that He had the capacity to hate anything.

And the phrase struck me, and it has struck me ever since, every time I think about it. Because when someone says God isn't supposed to hate anything, I got to thinking, where does that idea come from?

What is the idea that God cannot have a righteous hatred? Have we so emasculated God that He is unable to have any emotion except for love? And is His love so meaningless and so shallow that it cannot be contrasted with that which He does not love?

If only love is exuding from God, it can't be contrasted with any other emotion. And He just loves everything, and loves everyone, and loves it all. Then it's shallow and meaningless. But that is the understanding of God that so many have today.

And the understanding is not only wrong, it has created an entire generation of people who do not understand the God of the Bible. And among the attitudes of God, among the attributes of God that is least popular, especially within the modern liberal church, is the wrath of God.

God's wrath is often seen as something so grotesque that only the truly ignorant, only the truly backwoods, would truly want to be bound by such a disturbed theology. I've been accused... It's a blessing and a curse, but we do have online with our church, we reach out to thousands of people a year through the ministry of our online sermons and YouTube and things like that.

Again, I said it's a blessing and a curse. It's a blessing that we get to reach so many people. We've reached people in almost every country in the world. And I get these reports that say, who's getting a chance to hear our ministry?

It's wonderful. But the negative sometimes, I get emails and comments and say it's negative, whatever. But the responses, some of the most negative responses I've ever received, have been on the times where we have spent time looking at what the Bible says about the wrath of God.

People just do not want to hear what the Bible says on the subject. Furthermore, many modern preachers are often afraid to speak of such a truth as though it were so offensive to their congregation that they can't offend the congregation because they're afraid to lose their job.

Thankfully, I fear not for my job, not because I don't think you could fire me. I think you all could if you really wanted to. But I know God is ultimately in control of who's in this pulpit. So, preach the truth and let God be God.

That's the way you have to do it. You can't be afraid of the truth. I remember when I first started preaching Reformed Theology, my wife was very nervous. She said, those doctrines are hard for people to understand and you won't keep your job.

I said, well then I'll have to work at McDonald's. We'll have to do something. We're going to preach the truth and let God be God. Thankfully, I have yet to work at a McDonald's. So, things are okay. But here are some things.

Here are some quotations from clippings that describe the preaching that is advertised in some churches. I did a little research, thankfully, to Dr. John MacArthur. He had some of these in his book, Ashamed of the Gospel.

I don't know if you've ever read that book, but it's a fantastic book. And he had some of these in his book. But this is some advertisements for preaching. Here's one. And I quote, There is no fire and brimstone here, no Bible thumping, just practical witty messages.

End quote. Witty messages. Another. Services at, and I'm not going to say the name of this church, but it is the church name. Services at this church have an informal feeling. You won't hear people threatened with hell or referred to as sinners.

The goal is to make them feel welcome, not drive them away. So you won't hear about hell. You won't hear about the gospel. But you will feel welcome, because that's ultimately what's important. I like this one.

It says, The sermons are relevant, upbeat, and best of all, short. You won't hear a lot of preaching about hellfire. Preaching here doesn't sound like preaching. It is sophisticated, urbane, and friendly talk.

It breaks all the stereotypes. End quote. Urbane. That's a good word. Another one. The pastor is preaching a very upbeat message. It's a salvationist message. But the idea is not so much that you're being saved from the fires of hell.

Rather, it's being saved from the meaninglessness and aimlessness in this life. It's more of a soft sell. This is the ad. This is the quote. I'm not making these things up. This is just directly. And the final one.

The idea is to get people through the front doors, then disprove the stereotype of the sweating, loosened necktie. Hey, I didn't wear a tie today. Bible-thumping preacher who yells and screams about burning in hell for eternity.

So not only has the wrath of God become very unpopular, it seems as if hell has really lost its place among preachers. But again, why do preachers do this? What is this? What has caused this? Well, it's out of vogue.

It's unpopular. Nobody wants to be unpopular. But why is it unpopular? It's unpopular because it offends people's sensibilities. It offends the mind which does not want to believe in a God of wrath, which is the natural mind.

The Bible says the natural mind cannot accept the things of God. It cannot receive the things of God. And thus, what we have tried to do is we've tried to water down the message of the gospel that we do not offend the natural mind, and it's impossible to preach the gospel and not offend the natural mind.

So what we've had to do is we've had to cut out the gospel. We've had to cut out the wrath of God. We've had to cut out the truth so as to not offend. And what happens? Well, we're left with an emasculated God whose only purpose is to make us happy, healthy, wealthy, and wise, but not to save our souls from wrath.

Well, here's the truth. Though the idea of a wrathful God upsets the sensibilities of many people, if we actually look at the Bible, we cannot help but to see the demonstration of God's wrath throughout both the Old and the New Testaments.

And because it is there, we must proclaim it. Whether or not it's popular, whether or not it offends your sensibilities or mine, whether or not we grow the church to 10 ,000, what does it matter if you have a group of 10 ,000 people who do not know the gospel?

It's not a church. It's a social club that's surrounded itself with a veneer of religiosity but does not have Christ. So we have that. We do not have a church. Amen. So, let's look now at how God's wrath is demonstrated throughout the Bible.

We're going to look at a few various passages. We're starting in Romans 1 .18. And we will examine Romans 1 .18 and the verses following it in the weeks to come. But Romans 1 .18 this morning is simply to remind us that the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven.

That is what the message of Romans 1 .18 is. Romans 1 .18 and following shows us how that wrath is revealed. But I want us to look into the Old Testament today and see where the wrath began and how it has been demonstrated over time so that we never have a question in our minds, is God a God who has wrath within Him?

The Wrath of God in the Garden, the Flood, Sodom, and the Exodus

So let us begin looking first at God's wrath in the garden. If you'll turn in your Bibles to Genesis 3, you will see the first expression of the wrath of God. And just go to Genesis 3 verse 22. You see, when sin entered the world and man's disobedience, God leveled against that sin His punishment upon man and upon his posterity.

Each of the players involved. You remember there were three players involved. There was the man who was given the command of God not to eat of the tree. There was the woman who was given that command by the man to not eat of the tree.

And there was the serpent himself who said, By the way, that one small phrase is the phrase that still is uttered by the serpent to this day. When you believe in the Word of God, what does the atheist say?

Did God really say that? Is there really a God? Do you really think you're going to heaven? Is that really true? The question mark of half God said that started in the garden is still the question mark which ends all of the complaints and arguments against the gospel to this day.

Is it really the Word of God? And where you stand on that will determine where you stand in accordance with faith. It either is God's Word or it is not God's Word. We cannot have some halfway... I had a guy tell me one time, I don't think the whole Bible is the Word of God.

I said, well, pick out the parts that aren't. What are you going to do? Take a pen knife and just go through and cut out the part? Are you going to be like Marcion? Marcion was actually one of the reasons why we have the Bible the way we have it today and collated together.

Because he tried to take out certain portions. And the early church said, no, we can't have that. We have to make sure the whole Bible is intact. Then he tried to cut out the part of God's wrath. He tried to cut out the whole Old Testament and most of the New.

So that he ended up with a God that was only loving. Look at Marcion. I had a sermon a while back called The Marcians Are Coming. Marcion is a very important historical figure because his goal was the same goal of today.

It's that people who want to remove whole portions of the Bible and only be left with a God who is an emasculated God, incapable of saving because there's nothing to save from. Alright, so back into God's wrath in the garden.

Verse 22. This is after the sin has occurred. Chapter 3, verse 22. Then the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good and evil. Now lest he reach out his hand and take also the tree of life and eat and live forever.

Therefore God sent him out from the garden of Eden to work the ground from which he was taken. He drove out the man. And at the east of the garden of Eden, he placed the chariot of them and a flaming sword that turned every way to guard the way to the tree of life.

Note this, beloved. Very simple reality. Prior to sin's entrance into the world, there was no human death. Prior to sin's entrance into the world, there was no human death. The first act of demonstration of the wrath of God was God taking away the eternal life which He had created man to receive and giving him death as a punishment for his sins.

Life would end. And beloved, I don't know about you, but one of the most difficult things in the world that I deal with on a very regular basis is death. Just this last week, Jennifer and I, we have a friend, it's a friend of a friend, but we know this person who had a baby.

They said the baby wouldn't live through the birth, maybe an hour or two. But the baby ended up living 140 something days. But he did pass. And that kind of reality just strikes you to the core, especially when you have a nine-month-old like we do.

We hold her close. The idea of death is a reality that's difficult to conceive, that life ends. And yet, the truth is, this is something we all experience throughout our lives, and then at the end of our life, we'll all experience it.

But why do we die? The Bible says why we die. It says the wages of sin is death. It says that through one man, sin entered the world, and death through sin, and death spread to all men. The very first picture of the wrath of God is the death of men.

Anybody who says, I don't believe in a God of wrath, needs to understand that the very first expression of the wrath of God was when He said to man, you no longer will live, but you will die. And He cut off that way back to that tree.

He cut off that way. Later, He would build a bridge to a new tree. Later, He would take the wood of the cross and He would build a bridge to a new way of life. And He would demonstrate His love and His mercy and His grace.

But at that moment, what we see is the cutting off of life, the introduction of death, and the demonstration of the wrath of God. So the very first demonstration of God's wrath was seen in the garden when Adam and his wife were excommunicated from the garden, and death became an everyday reality to them, something that they never knew when it was coming, but knew was coming.

We see again the wrath of God in the flood. Turn with me to Genesis 6. We don't have to turn too far. Just a page over. Genesis 6. Most of us know this story well. God's anger was kindled against the people of the earth because their sin was great.

Look at verse 5. The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. As a result, God decided to destroy everyone and everything with the exception of Noah and his three sons.

Interestingly enough, biblical anthropology teaches that from those three sons came the races that we see today. One went north, one went southeast, one went southwest, and thus we have the Caucasian race of the north, the black race of the southeast, and the Asian race of the other.

And it's interesting. There's a lot more to that story. But they were the only ones who survived. Three people survived the flood, or three men to go on and perpetuate families. Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Which means one other thing, by the way, that racism is silly. Not that that has anything to do with this sermon, but it is silly because we all have the same ultimate father and mother, Adam and Eve, and after that is Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and we all come from the same family line.

But again, that's off the subject. The point here is in chapter 7, verse 11, it says, in the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the 17th day of the month, on that day, all the fountains of the deep burst forth and the windows of heaven were opened and rain fell upon the earth 40 days and 40 nights.

The earth itself was destroyed by a flood which encapsulated and encompassed every person and every animal, except for those which were contained within the ark, and God's wrath was demonstrated in a massive, watery grave.

You know, I've mentioned this before, but I cannot understand how Noah's Ark became such a popular children's story. But if you think about the reality of Noah's Ark, it's not a pretty picture. Noah's Ark is a picture of the wrath of God demonstrated upon every person in the world.

The only safe place was that ark. That, by the way, is a type of Christ. We've taught on this. We've talked about this. The ark is a picture of Christ. The only place to be safe from the wrath of God was in that ark.

The ark represents Christ, because when God's wrath is poured out in the end, the only safe place would be to be in Christ. Those who are outside of Christ will be destroyed in the fires of hell, and those who are in Christ will be saved.

So, the ark is a type of Christ. Now, we've seen... Why do people make the Noah's Ark story a cartoon? Because we don't want to think about the reality of God's wrath. We don't want to consider the truth and reality of God's wrath.

The third thing, turn to Genesis 19. What's interesting is we haven't even left the first book yet. People want to argue God has no wrath, or we don't believe in the wrath of God. We haven't even left the first book of the Bible.

Genesis 19. We see the wrath of God and the destruction of Sodom. Sodom was a city consumed by sin, and God chose to demonstrate His wrath in destroying everyone within its limits with the exception of Lot, another person to whom God gave His grace.

Similar to Noah, God gave His grace to Lot and saved him and his daughters. His wife, of course, was not saved because of her love for Sodom. Her unwillingness to not turn back. But Genesis 19 verse 23 says,.

The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the Lord rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the Lord out of heaven. From the Lord. That's an important part of that. It gives no doubt where it came from.

And He overthrew those cities and all the valley and all the inhabitants of the cities and what grew on the ground. Then verse 26 talks about Lot's wife. It says,. But Lot's wife behind him looked back and she became a pillar of salt.

And Abraham went early in the morning to the place where he had stood before the Lord and he looked down toward Sodom and Gomorrah and toward all the land of the valley. And he looked and behold, the smoke of the land went up like the smoke of a furnace.

Beloved, this scene is horrific. This scene is terrible. The only thing I can liken it to would have been Hiroshima and Nagasaki after the atomic bombs were dropped. Just a place destroyed by fire. But this was not the fire of men's wrath, but it was the fire of the wrath of God and demonstration of His power and His hatred of sin.

And then of course, Exodus 14. We can't go through all the wrath, but I want one last one. Exodus 14. And verse 26. This is God's demonstration of His wrath against His enemies. Pharaoh and his army. It says, Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea.

This is after the sea has been split. This is after the people of God have walked across on dry land and they are now safe. It says, Then the Lord said to Moses, stretch out your hand over the sea that the water may come back upon the Egyptians, upon their chariots and upon their horsemen.

So Moses stretched out his hand over the sea and the sea returned to its normal course when the morning appeared. And as the Egyptians fled into it, the Lord threw the Egyptians into the midst of the sea.

The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen of all the hosts of Pharaoh that had followed them into the sea. Not one of them remained. But the people of Israel walked on dry ground through the sea.

The waters being a wall to them on their right hand and on their left. It's a horrible depiction of the wrath of God. A terrible thing to consider. Just a massive amount of water collapsing upon an army and the army being crushed under its weight.

And remember, this is not many days after every single firstborn of every household had been destroyed. You know, if you want a picture of the wrath of God, if you really wonder what the wrath of God looks like, you look at the Passover.

It says in the book of Exodus, there was not a house in Egypt where there was not one dead. People talk about the death angel. You know, the Bible never talks about a death angel. The Bible says the Lord will pass through and strike down the firstborn.

It talks about a destroyer at one point, but ultimately the text is very clear. It says, I will pass through, and when I see the blood on the doorposts, I will not allow the destroyer to take that one, but I will pass through and I will strike down the firstborn in every household.

The Unchanging God and the Wrath of Christ in the New Testament

Now, the reality is, and I don't know where your mind is going, but the reality is you've probably noticed that I've spent most of my time this morning in the Old Testament. And a lot of people hear me talking and they say, well, you know, hey, he spent three of his examples were in Genesis.

One of his examples was in Exodus. But you know what? I serve the New Testament God. I really like the New Testament God because hey, Jesus is my homeboy or whatever. Silly stuff. Jesus is different. But what did we learn over the last few weeks of study?

What new word did we introduce into some of our vocabularies? The word immutable. What does it mean? Changeless. The Bible teaches one thing about God and one thing very clearly about God, and that is that He does not change.

I remember the example I gave you. I said if He's perfect, He can't change. If He's perfect, He can't change. And He is perfect, so He does not change. So somebody who says, well, I don't believe in that Old Testament God.

I don't believe in that Old Testament God of wrath. I say, well, first of all, if you think the God of the Old Testament is different than the God of the New Testament, then you either believe in some form of polytheism where you have many gods, or you believe that God changed from the Old Testament to the New Testament, that there was some wholesale change in Him, and thus you don't believe in the God of the Bible.

So either way, you are an idolater. You've created a God in your own mind that doesn't exist, and that is the very definition of idolatry. If you create a God in your mind that is not like the God who is described here, that is the very definition of idolatry.

God said, I will have no other gods before Me. And you've placed one there. The God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament. And people say, well, where do we see wrath in the New Testament?

Really? The wrath of God is demonstrated in the New Testament in probably the most profound way ever because it is in the New Testament, beloved, wherein we find the concept of hell. The concept of hell is only briefly alluded to in the Old Testament.

In fact, if it were not for the clear teachings of the New Testament, we would not have a full doctrine of eternal punishment from the Old Testament. Many people who are what are called orthodox Jews do not believe in hell because they do not believe that it is clearly enunciated in their text.

But because we have the New Testament, we have a clear enunciation of the reality of hell. And because we have a clear enunciation of it, it is the most profound expression of the wrath of God in all of the Bible.

Jesus Christ, the one who they want to grab onto, liberals say, well, I don't like Christians, but I love Jesus. No, you don't. That's false. You love a Jesus that you have created. You don't love the Jesus of the Bible.

These people, well, I love Jesus. I love how nice He was. He let the woman wash His feet and He washed His disciples' feet. And they want to make Jesus some form of soft individual. And the love of Jesus was powerful.

And don't get me wrong, if this is the first time you've ever heard me, you might think I'm a nut because all I'm talking about is wrath. I believe in the love of God. I believe God's grace is the most amazing thing in the world.

And I believe the demonstration of that grace and His saving my wretched soul was the most powerful expression of love that He could have ever given any individual. Because I know how bad I am. Y 'all don't, but I do.

I know how bad my heart is. And yet, God saved me. So, I love His love. I appreciate His love. But I cannot deny His wrath to appreciate His love. In fact, it is understanding His wrath that makes me appreciate His love.

And the wrath of God demonstrated through Christ. Let's just look at two things Jesus said. Go to Matthew. Matthew 13 and verse 40. It says in Matthew 13 and verse 40, just as the weeds are gathered and burned with fire, so will it be at the close of the age.

The Son of Man. That's Jesus' designation for Himself. It's the designation that Daniel gives Him back in the book of Daniel talking about when the Son of Man comes, Jesus designated Himself as this divine Son of Man, who He is.

He said the Son of Man will send His angels. They will gather out of His kingdom all causes of sin and all lawbreakers and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place, there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.

This is a picture of the reality that is expected for the unbeliever. This is the picture of the reality of the one whose sin is not forgiven and who looks forward to eternity apart from Christ. Do you guys remember probably the most famous thing Jesus ever said in John 3?

Go to John 3 real quick. What's the most famous verse in the Bible? John 3 .16, right? For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, so that whosoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life.

But then if you go down to verse 36, He says these words, Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but what abides on him? What remains on him? The wrath of God.

So anyone who says the wrath of God is an Old Testament concept and that Jesus knows nothing of the wrath of God, has either removed this verse from their Bible or they are ignorant of it or worse yet, they have ignored it.

Anyway, the truth is simple. The Old Testament God demonstrates His wrath and the New Testament continues the demonstration of that wrath with an even more forceful demonstration and that is the wrath of hell.

The wrath of God is one of the most least... Oh, I can't say that. Let me try that again. It is one of the least, most least. How do you like that? It is one of the least popular subjects in modern preaching.

But to ignore it is to ignore the clear teaching of the Bible. And again, it is not just found in the words of Christ in the New Testament. We see it in the lives of Ananias and Sapphira. Ananias and Sapphira who lied to the Holy Spirit and what happened as a result.

God's wrath was demonstrated in them. We see it in Herod. When Herod proclaimed, he proclaimed this day of worship to him and the Bible says he was struck dead at that very moment. We see the wrath of God demonstrated throughout the Old Testament, throughout the New Testament, before the cross and after the cross.

And though it be one of the most unpopular subjects in modern preaching, to ignore it is to ignore the teaching of the Bible. The Bible is clear that God not only hates sin, but that He hates it so much that He is willing to damn our immortal soul over it.

Those who are embarrassed and ashamed of God's wrath and who try to replace it or ignore it, do nothing but create within their minds an idol and live in rank idolatry. The wrath of God is very powerful and horrifying and worthy of the fear of man.

And the only escape from that wrath is in Christ. That's why it surprises me sometimes when people say, well, I'm a pluralist. I believe that all religions are right. Beloved, there is no Messiah in Islam.

There is no Messiah in Orthodox Judaism. There is no Messiah in Baha 'i. There is no Messiah in balancing dualism. There is no Messiah in Taoism. There is no Messiah in Buddhism. There is no Messiah in any of these religions.

And these religions who are promising you inner peace will give you nothing when it comes time to be judged for your sins. And peace in this world means nothing if we still live under the wrath of God.

And Jesus was very clear. We are either in Him, or the wrath of God abides upon us. This is why the song is called, In Christ Alone. By the way, when I first heard that the PCUSA didn't want In Christ Alone, I thought that's why they didn't want it.